Startups Everywhere

I found that reading the first part of The $100 Startup was inspiring. The path that Guillebeau described that was common to all those micro businesses is the one that I see myself on.   Reading about so may businesses that started the same way has highlighted instances in my own life where I have witnessed similar start-ups, although sometimes they come in unexpected places.

Last night I watched a documentary about a performance art/prank/comedy troupe, Improve Everywhere, that began as a few friends joking around, and exploded into a world wide phenomenon.  What I found amazing in watching the documentary was that the story completely followed the path the Guillebeau described.  

Charlie Todd, the creator of Improv Everywhere was an actor and an improve comedian.  One day in 2001 he was mistakenly identified as a famous musician in a bar, and decided to play along, rather than correct the confused person.  That moment led him, and a group of his friends to continue to stage improve moments in public places in New York City.  These initial performances involved a simple premise: get on the subway without pants, or pretend to be hypnotized in central park.  He would have a friend film these performances and would then write about the public's reaction on his website.

As time went on, the performances grew, and more and more people became participants.  Todd would send out an email to his mailing list, for people to meet in a certain place, give brief instructions, and then watch what happened.  To say that he was creative is an understatement.  Some of his skits that I remember seeing years ago included the New York City Synchronized Swimming Team, which consisted of 15 people performing a routine in a fountain

Or a skit where 80 "agents" arrived wearing a blue polo shirt and Khakis to walk around a Best Buy store, in the same uniform as the employees.  Occasionally the "missions" resulted in the police arriving, and occasionally making arrests although the charges were never upheld

Throughout the history of Improv Everywhere, it is possible to witness innovation.  Todd had essentially started a blog to record his experiences, before blogs existed.  The whole concept of large scale pranks would be impossible without the use of the internet, and of course sharing the results f the pranks was extremely limited until the rise of YouTube.  Even the skits themselves could harness innovative technology.  In one series of skits, the Mp3 Experiment, Todd created a recorded set of instructions, and asked agents to download it onto whatever devices they chose, and then using headphones the agents followed the instructions as one massive group.  

I had no idea, when I started watching the documentary that THIS could become a start-up.  however, over the course of over a decade, that is what Todd did.  He followed his passion, of making these improv pranks and finding unique ways to interact with the community.  Although it is hard to explain what he really is doing, and much harder to explain what he is selling, he was able, like so may of the start-ups in the book, to find people who valued what he was creating.  

Todd also experienced a number of failures.  One of his pranks was featured on This American Life, however it was argued that the prank was mean spirited and hurtful, resulting in negative press. He was approached by NBC to make a pilot, however that was never picked up.  Todd was able to use these failures as opportunities however.  He approached NBC to share the footage from his pilot episode and posted the skits on line. One prank in particular, Frozen Grand Central, exploded on YouTube:

  Through YouTube advertisements, Todd was able to make Improv Everywhere his career.  He now travels around the world speaking and setting up similar pranks.  Just as his pranks are unexpected  for the people watching them, finding out that he was able to turn his vision into a startup was unexpected.  For me, this was a great reminder that you don't need to have a product to sell to be an entrepreneur, you just need a vision that people value.